Research

I am a PhD fellow at Roskilde University, affiliated with the Velux-funded HUMpraxis project “The Intuitive Encounter: Existence and Ethics in Bindeleddet’s Expanding Social Work with Youth.” My research explores the ethical, existential, and relational dimensions of volunteer mentorships for socially vulnerable youth, using the Danish NGO Bindeleddet as an in-depth case.

The project brings philosophical and sociological perspectives into dialogue with empirical fieldwork to understand what it means to be a ‘good’ mentor in a civil society setting. I engage particularly with Edith Stein’s phenomenology of empathy and Hartmut Rosa’s theory of resonance to explore how moments of recognition and connection emerge in mentoring relationships marked by asymmetry, uncertainty, and emotional intensity.

Methodologically, I work with a qualitative, interpretive approach, grounded in phenomenological analysis and thematic interpretation of interviews, reflection journals, and observations. The empirical material is treated as co-experienced and emerged, situated knowledge, and is analyzed in close conversation with phenomenological philosophical concepts that help illuminate the tensions, dilemmas, and potentials of mentorship practices in settings shaped by social vulnerability.

Rather than applying theory deductively, I aim to think abductively with my empirical material—allowing field experiences and conceptual reflections to mutually inform one another as an emerging field og knowledge and pratice. My project contributes to the development of a language for understanding mentorship as a relational and ethical practice, rather than merely a tool for behavioral change or social integration.

Theoretically, I am interested in the intersection between lived experience, ethical responsibility, and societal belonging. I see mentorship as a site where questions of recognition, relational autonomy, and civic engagement converge—and where civil society can offer forms of care and support that differ from those of institutional welfare.

As part of my research I collaborate with Hartmut Rosa and will go to Erfurt to to ongoing presentations of findings. I will also travel to Maynooth Univeristy in Ireland to collaborate with Mette Lebech.